The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast by William Roscoe - (1807)

Sample pages in McGuffey Readers - (1834)

Excerpt from possibly the first comic book published in 1842 in the United States
as: The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, by Rodolphe Töpffer

Rodolphe Töpffer created an illustrated book with characteristics of a comic book: pacing, storytelling, humor and whimsically exaggerated characterts. He personally sold his first book, Vieux-Bois, to bookshops across Europe.

The demand was good after the book was published and illicit copies were made by other people early in 1838. Töpffer redrew and refined his book and sold it in direct competition. However, Wilson and Company used the bogus copy to create the version that came to America with the name of The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. This version had a better artistic style and maintained the origitnal layout and pacing. Thus becoming the first comic book available in America.

One of his best known cartoons, in the scientific community, is his spoof on the idea of phrenology having a scientific basis.

Caption reads -

Moving on to the demonstrative proof, Mr. Craniose unpacks his collection, and shows that phrenology is based on facts, that these facts are bumps, that these bumps indicate thievery in a head belonging to a thief, murder in a head belonging to a murderer, and knowledge in a head belonging to a scientist.

Early Writings

Early writing in America. Dated to around 900 BCE
(
800-1000 BCE)

Thought to be a poem as the images repeat in a pattern similar to the pattern of Mesoamerican poetic couplets. Scientific American July 2015